Tyranids - So close, yet so far.. WIP Showcase

Hi guys,
I attempted this weekend to get my 1850 Nids into a coherent and sexy looking paint scheme.. from the mish mash of browns and greens and even pinks (!) that they were beforehand.

Quite an undertaking in one weekend.
Suffice to say - I failed.

I simply couldn't get them all done in time for Blog Wars 4, an 1850 one day tournament this weekend at Maelstrom/Eye of the Storm.

What I did get done was about 1650. Still pretty impressive and with just my Hive Guard and a 2nd harpy to finish, I feel pretty good about the whole project.

What I aim to do now? Well, I'll run my trusty Necrons to this one, celebrating their 1 year birthday of attending 40k tournaments. That's pretty good for me - if you know me, you'll know I can't stick with one thing for long..hobby ADD and all that.. but the robots have kept me going all year.. let's forget that I won a tournament down at Brighton Warlords earlier in the year with my Space Wolves.. my 1st 6th ed Tournament win!

As for the Nids, well - they'll get finished over the Christmas break, hopefully well before tbh, as I intend to dust off all my vanilla Space Marines and get them all painted up in anticipation of the Dark Angels codex, and ready to ultimately be a force that I am proud of.. my Space Wolves are "OK" but that is all they are.. My BA/GK/VSM.. well, they are a bit crap tbh.. time to make a Marine force to be proud of.

In the meantime, have a goose at these chaps..

These were done with an airbrushed base coat over a grey primer.

I then worked down the colour to a very near black in the centre of the densest (arguably) part of each Nid shell/carapace. In the case of the Doom/Zoanthrope (above right) this meant his forehead!

The most prominent features of each Nid then got a fade to Orange. This meant heads, most pointy bit, claws, tails etc.

It does look incredibly striking en masse.

AS you can see left here, I am somewhat short of little bugs.. You can just about see the beginnings of a pile of little bugs in the mid, far left of this photo.. that pile extends off for quite some way, but unfortunately they are not painted or just in the crazy ass mess of their previous colour schemes.

I am also missing another set of Balrog wings for my 4th flying bug.. a 2nd Harpy.
The painted list is now really quite good..
Both Flyrants,
Harpy,
2 Tervigons,
Doom + Pod
20 Gargoyles
20 Termagants
Trygon
Now the still to go list:
4 Hive Guard (old school warriors)
40 Termagants
These guys are all purple.. but nothing more now..
As for the rest of the army.. it needs washing (the purple basecoat to add some shading and depth, highlight the detail etc) and then I plan to add some patterning to the orange...like freckles..
Anyway.. you know me.. I am not a big "army showcase" guy.. but I thought I would show these guys off, they look good.. I will get some decent photos and more updates over the next couple of weeks as I finish them off.
Hope you like.